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# Hidden Light

#### by Timothy Ferguson

The copyright of this article remains with the original author. Articles may be copied or distributed freely for personal non-profit use, provided that the author is properly credited.

"Hidden Light" is a set-up adventure for a campaign that is easily adapted for use as a standard story. It explores the use of Hermetic magic to colonise inhospitable environments. It considers the fine balance to be maintained between the twin necessities of seclusion from mundane matters and the need for outside information and resources. It deliberates on the role automation will play in the future of the Order. It takes the characters out of their element, literally.

### Hedge Magi and Hedge Nobility

A hedge wizard named Alf arrives at the covenant and asks the assistance of the magi. A noblewoman who rules over the village in which he lives has been transformed into a bear. He has attempted to change her back himself, but she is ferocious and the spell is beyond his ability. He has, however, promised the nobleman that he would find more powerful wizards to take up the task, and carries an assurance that they'll be well-rewarded for their efforts.

If the characters agree to aid the nobleman, Alf will lead them toward his home. His nobleman lives in a vast castle, far distant from sufficient arable land that would require defending. In playtesting it was assumed that this castle was on the Atlantic coast of Ireland, or on the coast of Wales, but it can be set anywhere by the sea. Before the castle lies a slate beach that looks out over apparently endless grey and turbulent water. The lands it governs are peat marsh, moorland, scrub and bog, occasionally intruded upon by a fishing hamlet. Much of the castle is uninhabited, because there local population isn't sufficient to supply the wages for a garrison. Any magus sensitive to aurae will detect the faintest of Fay presences along the beach, and an aura of 2 in the castle.

Fogerdie, the local lord, is a thin, leathery man in his forties. His land is poor, so he has none of the graces of continental nobles. His wife turned into a bear last solstice, while they were asleep together, and before he realised what had happened he chased the creature into the wilds. It was only when he noticed that both his wife and a bearskin they used as a coverlet had vanished that he realised what had occurred. Rumours have started to circulate that he murdered his wife and concocted this story, so he contacted Alf and promised him ten cattle to change her back.

Fogerdie is willing to haggle with the magi, but his domain isn't rich, so he can't promise gold or silver. Magi who've yet to learn what a barter economy is will be in for some instruction now, as Fogerdie offers them so many barrels of salted fish per year for a certain number of years, a plowshare every two months and all the peat they can cut from a certain bog. Magi who linger over the price will find Fogerdie has other treasures, but he's unaware of their value. He lives a hard and pragmatic life, and his "ornaments" interest him because his family's history is tied to them. That they'd be of value to wizards hasn't occurred to him, because Alf, with whom he's dealt previously, trades small services for necessities like food.

The Castle of the Giants, as Fogerdie's home is known, is built to human scale, but has a profusion of unnecessary rooms. His dining hall is large enough for a hundred feasters, and his bedchamber is enormous. Each is decorated with huge bronze artefacts, the arms, Fogerdie claims, of the masters of the Castle before his ancestors cast them out. He has a story for each item, and would be loath to part with them. None contain vis, although they are certainly of faerie manufacture and may interest Merinita magi or Giant Blooded companions.

Since the transformation took place while Lady Ethienne slept, the magi may wish to see Fogerdie's chamber. It's very large, but it's most striking features are the stone outcrops that line the room's walls. As they are chest height, slope toward the wall and have a prominent lip along the base, Fogerdie uses them as racks to display his family's trophies. To a magus, however, they have an obvious alternative function. They are reading stands. This room was once a library. Hermes Lore rolls of 21+ reveal that a group of magi dwelt in this area centuries ago, but the covenant's exact site has been lost to history.

Characters searching this room will find an odd contraption resting on the bedhead. It's a bronze stake, about four feet long, and discretely marked with the Hermetic symbols for Rego and Vim and the Latin inscription "Cyprietta fillia Cyrian follower of Verditius" This item, called a picket, is described nearby. If the characters express an interest in it, Fogerdie will gladly offer it in exchange for his wife's return. He'll also mention that he found it on the beach eight years ago, while foraging through a shipwreck's flotsam.

#### Cyrian of Verditus and Liquid Vis Theory The picket was designed by Cyrian of Verditius, a Greek mage of the 9th century. Cyrian is little remembered in Hermetic history, although magi researching him (Hermes History 15+) may be surprised to learn that they've heard his theories before. Cyrian was the first magus to compare vim to a fluid, and he invented vis extraction. Magi grow out of Cyrian's theory. Criamon saw vim as a type of radiant energy that sat around in everything like ambient heat and his term, "aura" (nebula), has marked the acceptance of that view ever since. This is difficult to explain to children, so masters often stick with fluid and pools until the child's older, then explain ambient energy to them and work on from there. Slightly sticky radiant energy that gets its flavour from what it sticks to is a simple idea. An extended elemental metaphor complete with phase changes doesn't seem to give better results. Simple is comforting when many apprentices can perform a technique which seems to break Hermetic limits. In the closing stages of his life, Cyrian discovered the method of extracting vis used by virtually all magi today. This trick about condensing vis, he realised, wasn't explaining how the magic gets into the pebble, it's explaining why it doesn't come out again. Everything is permeated with magic, so forcing more magic into something isn't difficult. The perplexing bit is storing it in the object so that it doesn't gush out when the object moves out of the aura, the way water pours out of a soaking sponge when you lift it out of the bath. To make water solid, you freeze it, but Cyrian wasn't sure what the equivalent of cold was for vim. He knew faerie trees condensed vis into their fruit, and wasted a lot of time in Faerie forests. Finally, after travelling deep beneath the sea, he discovered that ice could be formed with pressure. He designed a minor spell which allowed him to create a magical layer around an object that was permeable only in one direction. The magus concentrated to prevent any vim spilling from the object, and eventually the pressure became so intense that the vim shifted phase into vis. That's why the technique used to extract raw vis is Creo, rather than Muto or Rego. The magus spends a season maintaining the permeable layer. Fortunately, just as he was unable to find what "cold" was, he couldn't find heat either, so his newly frozen vis didn't melt back into the ether when he took a break. Reliquifying the vis was simple in practice, but difficult in theory. Since time immemorial magi had been using vis, but the Hermetic technique had a new twist to it. Hermetic magi contained something which liquefied vis. This was almost a dividing line between True magi and Hedge Wizards. All magi could release vis, even if they were unable to use the energy produced for anything. Mundanes could not. After long research, Cyrian concluded that it was the spirit of the magus which reliquified vis. Magi shoved a fragment of their own magical nature through the barrier, which allowed the fluid to squirt out into the mage's body. Of course, this was dangerous, since it could disrupt the magus. They had to use all of the vis they were in contact with, and some of it, suddenly released from pressure, might phase shift straight past liquid and become a gas that it lifted them up out of the liquid of corporeal reality entirely, but, still, it was a handy technique and became quite popular, even among the radiant energy crowd. The thing that most irritated Cyrian, for the rest of his life, was that this was really only a stop-gap solution. He wanted to find Hermetic Cold, because that would let him snap freeze the vis in an area into vim. He slid, discontented, from Hermetic history, still searching for what other researchers insisted couldn't exist, an analogue of cold for radiant energy.

#### The Picket The picket is a hollow, bronze tube, four feet long by three inches wide, that is obviously designed to be driven into the ground. The tube's outer covering can be slid towards its ends to reveal the internal space, most of which is filled with bronze cylinders. The cylinders have a groove cut into them, so that they can be slid into a wire that runs along the centre of the device. At the upper end of the picket is a polished cylinder of coral, sovereign over that which flows, that is enchanted to create the monopermeable layers which allow vim to be packed into the cylinders until it crystallises into vis. A minor Intellego Vim spell determines which cylinders are empty. This picket's cylinders are completely full, as is the bedframe and several of the bricks in the wall against which it rests. The picket is designed to continue harvesting vis even when its cylinders are completely charged. It selects the nearby objects and packs them with vis. A magus who is able to deduce the function of the object can hypothesise that the picket enchanted the bearskin, and that somehow this allowed Ethienne to be transformed. Since the vis was probably consumed in the process, the effect may be permanent, and require vis to reverse. Magi should settle down for another hard session of haggling, but Fogerdie knows they want the picket, and has a minor relic which prevents the magi cheating him. Later in the adventure the players may discover a second picket. It serves an identical function to the first, but has InVi and ReTe enchantments upon it, which allow it to automatically travel to its designated aura, harvest vis and then return to a site near home for collection. It is marked as the property of Callia, fillia Phillipus, follower of Verditus. The second picket's design allows it to forage on land. If the characters ever meet the pickets' makers they'll find that their quest to perfect this device has gone further, so that new self-disguising, burrowing, levitating and vis-foraging pickets have been designed, if not yet constructed. Characters using the pickets in their own covenants should have few difficulties, but if they manage to replicate the devices they should be aware that overharvesting an aura may damage it. Each SG should decide for themselves how much vis can be safely removed from an aura each year before it is damaged. Each picket, it is suggested, should harvest one pawn of Vim vis per season. A picket is essentially a Secret Vis Source. Laboratory research of the pickets will indicate two first magnitude spells, one to make the little fields of force, the other to select where the fields are to be made. The picket's trick is that it repeats the process unrestingly for months at a time. Since the combined effects on the first picket are basically 2 magnitudes, it would be cruel to force a player to spend a season to figure them out. A laboratory and a magic theory roll of 12+ will suffice. The mobile picket has an added spell, so that it knows where to go to harvest (InMe on one of its operators), a version of Unseen Porter to move by, and a tricky little InVi effect that sets it off for home once its cylinders are full). Arguably this combination requires an Ability score as per WGRE rules (Craft-Vis Harvesting).

The bedroom contains other useful items, the most obvious being Ethienne's clothes, hairs from the coverlet, and weapons stained with the blood of the bear. Magi can use these arcane connections in Intelligo spells to track down the missing lady and, once she's been secured, turn her back, either by Hermetic magic, or by the influence of the Dominion.

### The Shore and Mound

The slate beach which separates the Castle of the Giants from the sea is bleak and chilly. The picket washed ashore during one of the regular, but nonetheless terrible, storms which buffet this coast during Winter. The flotsam has been picked at by the local peasantry, so nothing of value remains, but some useless items, such as ballast rocks, can be found and used as arcane connections, should the characters wish. Alternatively, they can carefully fossick the site for slivers of human remains. Although Fogerdie has ensured that drowned sailors are given Christian burials above the high water mark, the faith is new in this area, and some of the most ancient spirits here could tell the characters of the Mounds offshore.

Fogerdie's belief that the shipwreck and picket are connected is understandable, but erroneous. The picket had washed up weeks before the wreck, but since this beach is little used, it went unnoticed until people came ascavenging after the ship ran aground. Its source is a faerie mound under the sea, about a quarter mile from the lowest point of the tide. Characters making a Faerie Lore roll of 9+ know that this is a cairn, a mound of stones marking a grave. Those making a roll of 15+ know that this cairn is also a prison. It prevents the faerie buried beneath it from rising up in another role.

The mound is deep enough underwater that diving from the surface, and returning to it for air, are impractical methods of investigation. Characters who carefully examine the mound find another, differently designed, picket. Those who disturb the mound find the skull and weapons of a giant.. If his spirit is conjured up, he can explain to the characters that, long ago, two tribes of faerie contested this area and his people were forced into the sea. The faeries of the land placed heavy stones over the bodies of his kinsmen, but many of these were removed when humans first came here. They used them to build the nearby castle, and the momentoes of Fogerdie's family are the grave goods of his comrades. Characters who steal the giant's grave goods will be haunted by him, unless they also remove his skull, in which case, during the next storm, he'll join his fellows in their new game of "being merrow" and forget his animosity.

The giant knows that the mages who once lived in the castle on the land left by boat over the sea, but occasionally one of them returned, walking across the ocean floor, to collect the "spikes" that sap his power. He describes the magi as wearing purple robes and purple masks. An Hermetic Lore roll will reveal that a covenant in a neighbouring tribunal produces purple dye, but this covenant in one of the most obscure in the Order.

#### Did you hear about...?

The results of a Hermes Lore role concerning magi clad in purple reveals the following. A character who wants to make a (Neighbouring Tribunal) Lore roll reduces the difficulty factor by three.

Botch | Only Primi wear purple. This is a red herring for groups whose rolls are pathetically poor. 3+ | Purple is the colour of the Primi, although its use is non-exclusive.
6+ | The magi of the covenant of Hidden Light wear purple robes and masks.
9+ | Hidden Light maintains itself financially by exporting purple dye, an extremely expensive substance. (Natural Philosophy 9+, purple dye is made by crushing a type of sea molluscs.)
12+ | Hidden Lights sends only one representative to its Tribunal, and conducts all other business through redcaps. It has no vis harvesting sites recognised in the Peripheral Code. It is a Winter covenant. (This last sentence is false.)
15+ | No-one, save the redcaps, officially knows where Hidden Light is located, but it is probably in a regione. (The regione rumour is a lie which Hidden Light deliberately fosters). The representative of Hidden Light is always a Verditius magus.

Any roll of Hermetic Law of 9+ confirms that covenants are permitted to harvest vis outside their Tribunals. They can't have them recognised as for their sole use, however, unless both Tribunals, or the Grand Tribunal, agree. Usually the Tribunal boundaries are moved so that special sites fall within the same Tribunal as their owners. Sites to which no-one has legal claim, however, are fair game for any passer-by. A separate roll (also 9+) informs the characters that the pickets belong to someone else, and they are required to return them if asked.

### Negotiating with Hidden Light

Characters can access Hidden Light in several ways. The characters can follow the direction suggested by the giant, until they arrive close enough to the covenant that one of their magi comes to dissuade the characters from continuing. If the contact the deep-sea merrow who were once giants, these creatures can direct them to the odd humans who live nearby. If they parlay through the Redcap network for rewards in exchange for the return of the pickets, they might be granted library access. If they do nothing but take the second picket, they'll be asked to return it and pay compensation for the disrupted vis harvest by a Hidden Light magus and a Quaesitor.

Hidden Light is a large dome placed on the bedrock of the sea floor. #### Statistics for The Covenant of Hidden Light: Autumn Covenant, 6 magi. Covenant supplies: Minor clergy (3) Supplies: -3 (exotic equipment very far away) Seclusion: almost absolute Environment: Average, if odd. Size: 6 magi, 20 specialists, 25 grogs, but with 3 spare points of Size (one third larger than the average monastery) Impressive structures: Domes. Quality and repair: each excellent, 8 points (Carved stonework, stained glass, plumbing) Site: -12: Virtually indefensible. Defensive structures: Air bubble. Vis stocks: 2 points, mostly Vim Supplies: 1 point (All sorts of domestic bits and pieces) Reputation: None. Allies: 9 points (Verdi) Contacts: 8 points (Verdi (4), Redcap (1), Officer of the Realm (3) Enemies: local fae (-4) Income: 4 (1400 silver pieces per year) Vis supply: 16 (110 pawns)* Aquam 5, Terram 10, Herbam 15, Vim 80* (*Pickets are paid for here.) Inhabitants: -1 (25 grogs) Spells: 5 points (3000) Books: 3/0 (720) Aura: 6 (6 points) Magic items: 15 (1125 levels)** (**Doesn't include pickets, which are essentially a cosmetic change to "vis supply".)

A covenant with pickets has centred itself in Hidden Light's attention. They want their pickets back, and if they need to destroy the younger covenant to do so, then they will. They would prefer, however, to retain their seclusion, and so characters have a wide space for negotiation between just handing the pickets back and fighting to the death. Although retaining a stranglehold on the picket technology is central to Hidden Light's thought, they have other needs which give the characters leverage in negotiations. Although Hidden Light will not reveal these weaknesses to the player characters, if they deduce them, they can trade assistance for library access, vis, or money.

Hidden Light's isolation is vital, because their site is indefensible, but they seek to reduce its disadvantages. They'll gladly trade for recent books that are superior to their own, new spells which relate to their fields of interest, or tractus. They are somewhat interested in vis of types not found in the auras under Hidden Light's control. Although they require one only occasionally, they'll pay well for magical children not tainted by Hidden Light's high aura. The sea fae about the covenant are troublesome and sometimes dangerous, so methods of dealing with them would be considered valuable. Finally, there are mundane goods not available to a covenant underwater which they'd find it convenient to trade vis for. The best solution for the characters is to volunteer to act as agents for Hidden Light. The secluded covenant would be able to further reduce their interaction with the world, while simultaneously improving their standard of living.

The thing that Hidden Light needs most, so badly that it doesn't understand the need, is a break in its isolation which doesn't reveal its location. One of the firmest predictors of Winter in covenants is absolute detachment from the world around them, and Hidden Light was designed, from its very beginning to be absolutely secluded. A younger covenant, or younger magi wanting to join Hidden Light have a valuable asset of which they may be unaware: they can provide the submerged covenant with company. A particularly daring manoeuvre would be to gradually wean the hidden covenant from its shell, encouraging it to interact more with outsiders while developing its defences, until an eventual declaration, at Tribunal, of its aim, and a request for Dedicated Covenant status. On a less extreme scale, if the two covenants arranged for magi and covenfolk to be boarded for a year at a time at each other's sites, this would give a young covenant access to a powerful magus, and give the powerful magus a useful curb on monomaniacal study of vis.

Although they'd far prefer to pay vis for their pickets and goods, characters might be able to haggle Hidden Light into providing library access. If the characters are granted access to Hidden Light it will be under the following provisos:

- Characters will be transported to Hidden Light magically, by a covenant member.

- Characters must enter and leave Hidden Light naked, carrying nothing.

- Characters with familiars must bring them.

- The characters will make no attempt to fix the location of the Covenant.

- Characters will make no attempt to replicate the pickets.

- Characters will not divulge any information concerning their visit to outsiders.

- Characters will never be given casting tokens while within Hidden Light.

The Covenanters of Hidden Light have spent centuries hiding. Simple ploys won't fool them, and if the characters do discover Hidden Light's location then war is inevitable.

### Life in Hidden Light

Hidden Light is picturesque. It is a designed space, far more artificial than anything most magi have ever seen. As such, their first impression is likely to be of order, cleanliness and urbanity. It encapsulates the Verditius ideal of the machine, the deification of the Tool and the Craftsman. Magi from markedly different philosophies, such as the Bjornaer and Merinita may find the area absolutely sterile. As they stand at the covenant's highest point, they take in a vast, paved area, under a blue-green dome, and the dark sea-bed beyond.

The characters will find themselves on a raised, stone tower of white marble, carved with the gingerbreading of a people secure in the knowledge that it will never, ever rain and that moss will never, ever need to be removed. They are surrounded by five transparent cylinders, which rise up to intersect the dome. These each contain a slightly smaller, retractable, tube which can be thrust up through the surface of the water to replenish the covenant's supply of air. The tower upon which they stand is the grog barracks.

The grogs of the covenant have interbred with sea faeries over many years, and have been warped by the local aura. Most have a clear webbing between their digits, and some have hugely expanded hands and feet. The grogs' training regimen is unusual, and is vaguely reminiscent of gladiatorial combat, because they specialise in weapons effective in water, such as the weighted net and spear. Their combat techniques emphasise circling in light, flexible armour.

Few other grogs in the order are taught the advantages of three-dimensional combat, and Hidden Light's grogs have weapons which affect the buoyancy of their enemies. An enemy who sinks too far will be crushed by the weight of the water, or removed from the battle for many minutes as they struggle back toward the surface. A buoyancy enemy may suffer embolisms as their lungs and sinuses explode from rapid decompression, or may be trapped on the surface like a fly on sticking paper, easy prey for an opponent below.

The covenfolk of Hidden Light have usually been purchased from other covenants, through hefty vis payments. The staff is small, but highly skilled. More through accident than design, they come from all over the Order, and therefore all over Europe. Latin has been adopted as the common language, although the variety spoken at Hidden Light is out of date, and is drifting linguistically. As the covenant has only fifty-one members, its covenfolk are encouraged to pursue interests which might divert the rest. All know at least one Craft or Performance skill, and Free Expression is so highly prized that a sound craftsman with this virtue will be selected before a grandmaster lacking it.

The covenfolk usually sleep in the place where they work. Most work is done in a single building at one edge of the dome. Since their meals are served communally, their laundry is done for them and human waste is disposed of mechanically, covenfolk have no real need for separate domiciles. The weather is stable under the dome, so people wear a lot less than is considered modest above the surface. As the community is so small, the members don't differentiate their garments by profession. This building also includes the refectory and scriptorium for the covenant, the later being where the library is now kept.

The magi experiment in a separate building, designed specifically to prevent damage to the dome in cases of extreme lab failure. The laboratories are very large by Hermetic standards, and a central, enormous, lab is used for work upon the vis crystallisation project. This was once the library, but the magi became concerned that a lab accident might damage it. It still serves as their Council Chamber. Although they vary in age, the magi are all committed to the vis crystallisation project and the great benefits they feel it will bring the Order, especially the Verditius.

One interest, only recently developed by the covenant's elder magi, is impersonating faeries. The magi of this covenant think nothing of grabbing a retinue, cruising rapidly beneath the waves to a coastal village and then carousing under the pretence that they're Fae. Since the are careful to select towns away from the current covenants and never take identifying objects with them, they've yet to be caught by other magi. Eventually, however, its inevitable that they'll come out of the Sea and have to play through on their charade of faeriehood.

The areas between the main buildings are used for sport or for the mechanical production of food. Fortunately for Hidden Light's magi, vitamins aren't in paradigm, so they can serve any old pap, suitably illusioned, and have their people none the worse. Nonetheless they've taken the Biblical hint that simple foods are better for you to heart, and they now only use hydroponic food when they haven't collected anything else. Since this area is paved, and the entire area is clean of debris, very few covenfolk wear shoes. Cats, descendants of various familiars, laze about these areas looking incongruous and enigmatic.

The dome itself is transparent, and radiates a sharp light. The dome appears green during the day, but is dimmed for a nominal night, during which it appears a deep greenish grey. During festivals the dome is left lit all night. Since light comes directly from above, shadows are rare here. There are multiple exits from the dome, although most are kept locked. A single one is usually opened for the entry and exit of foraging groups, war parties, agricultural devices and pickets. Although the dome is hermetically-sealed mechanically, a spell also holds back the water around it. This spell's area of effect can be expanded to create a huge dome of air around the covenant. This is used defensively upon creatures which lack the ability to breathe, or move, in air. The one disadvantage of this "moat of air" is that the meniscus it creates about the covenant is reflective, which reduces visibility.

For several miles about the covenant there are artificial light sources over fields of kelp, fish feeders, shellfish cages and other devices of aquaculture. Much of the labour involved in this undersea work is done by automata. The most important crop produced here are dye shells, which are crushed to give a vivid purple colour. These provide the money which the covenant uses to purchase those items it cannot create for itself.

### From here

This setting can be extended in several ways:

- The Castle of Giants might make a suitable site for a Spring Covenant, provided the characters could deal with Fogerdie. His demesne lacks labourers, so if they emphasise that their presence will bring skilled artisans, or simply large numbers of agricultural workers, to his lands, then he'll be more than willing to accept houseguests. The new covenant will differ from the usual, however, in that the grog turb will be Fogerdie's.

- Ethienne gives birth slightly more than nine months after she is restored to humanity. Her child may become a promising Bjornaer magus, or a ravening beast.

- Characters might petition for membership of The Covenant of the Hidden Light. Undersea adventures, negotiations with the sea fae and rummaging around the ruins of the various Sunken Kingdoms of myth would follow.

- Characters may become agents for the Covenant of Hidden Light, which essentially means they're paid to play a weird scavenger hunt across Europe, finding different types of vis for the Hidden Light magi to coo over. They'll also be regularly dispatched to Verdi in Italy, carrying reports and returning with the details of the latest advances in automation.

- Hidden Light may fall into Winter, then become extinguished. As the only magi who officially know where they are, they'll be able to claim the site. With this amazing technology, what will the characters do?

- The pickets allow the Order to delay difficult decisions, so their existence may be revealed by Verdi magi long before Hidden Light are ready. The Order's conservatives have long argued a retreat before the spreading Dominion, but increasingly-strident voices insist that one day the Dominion will destroy all vis sources, so the Order must take up arms against mundanes. Since the Verditius magi have many mundane customers, anything which makes the situation appear less dire is welcome.

- One of the most fearsome applications of the pickets are as tools of war. Its unusual for a covenant's Aegis to perfectly congruate its Aura. The pickets are as large as they are because the magus who first designed them wanted to be able to handle them annually, but there's nothing stopping a covenant from creating a tiny "picket" gemstone. Since overharvesting destroys aurae, half a dozen, independently mobile, micropickets could slurp the aura right off a rival's site and come home with the vis you need to PeVi that Aegis. Worse, the pickets designed using Hidden Light's incomplete research are based on MuVi(Re) techniques. They'd literally gather all of the vim in an area, Essence of the Beast style, and turn it into vis, dispelling Aegises and Parmae. Like most researchers, Hidden Light have completely failed to consider the military applications of their research.

#### And eternity

If the magi of Hidden Light are correct, then, one day, perhaps not long from now, a magus is going to walk into the competition of Verdi, or a Tribunal, and invite his soldales to view him magically. He will open his palm to reveal a ball of silver. Tossing it into the air, he will wave his hands, and say a brief word. The magi about him will feel an odd tearing in their parmae magicae. As it falls, the ball will begin to glow. As he cups it in his hands, it will intensify, burning brighter than anything they've seen. It will be as if he held a pocket of Twilight or Arcady. Then the ball will fade...

...but not extinguish...

And then...

### Spells from Hidden Light's library The membrane spells: CrVi (Gen): Exclusive Bubble of Mystic Force CrVi (Gen): Inclusive Bubble of Mystic Force CrVi (Gen): Impermeable Bubble of Mystic Force CrVi (Gen): Bubble of Mystic Force This cluster of spells create larger versions of the barriers used in the vis creation ritual. As Creo Vim spells, their basic characteristics are T/S/I. Although the descriptions below assume this to be the case, many versions of these spells have a longer Range. The exclusive bubble allows magical energy to travel outward, but not inward. It's therefore most useful as a magical defence. Creatures must make a Might roll of greater than the twice bubble's level to travel through it safely, although if they merely exceed the bubble's level they can enter by shedding all might in excess of their roll. The bubble also resists approaching spells. Any spell of level less than the bubble's, after penetration, fails to harm the protected area. A spell that succeeds in overwhelming a bubble destroys it. The spell that overwhelms the bubble is usually damaged in the process, so that its penetration roll, against its target, is reduced to that amount by which the incoming spell's level exceeded the bubble's. The bubble is not used permanently, because a magus within it can only cast Aura magnitude's worth of spells before the vim in the bubble is exhausted and spellcasting is impossible without vis. For every Target class above Individual the amount of magic that can be cast increases. Small: A fraction of aura based on how small the bubble compared to an individual magus. Individual: Aura Group: Twice Aura Structure: Thrice aura (Note that for Circle to be appropriate here the circle must be extremely large, otherwise it only captures enough area to contain a Roomful of vis. There are Circle-based bubble spells, since they are handy for Ring duration versions.) Boundary: Four Times Aura Sight: Five Times Aura A bubble and Parma Magica can be used together, but the ritual is usually performed first, otherwise it depletes Parma Magica/2 magnitudes of available Vim. In the vim-free environment of a depleted bubble a magus can cast normal spells by discharging vis, or can cast a MuVi10 spell to thaw Vim vis into a useful form. Either technique requires 1 pawn of vis per magnitude of the spell to be cast. This does have the useful effect of allowing a magus to carry a temporary aura with him into the mundane world. Magi will find enchantments failing if held within a depleted bubble. The inclusive bubble creates a wall of force that vim can enter, but not leave. Although the magi of Hidden Light are unaware of it, the best use of the Inclusive Bubble is as a weapon. An inclusive bubble allows vim to freely enter, and therefore spellcasters within one do not suffer magical rationing, but there are other problems a prisoner faces. Inclusive bubbles are explosive, which is why dozens of tiny spheres are created for vis extraction, instead of a single, huge one. An inclusive bubble's aura steadily builds toward 10, at which point pressure is relieved by a phase shift, so that additional vis crystallises into an object within the bubble. When this shift is no longer possible, the vim within the bubble explodes outward, reliquifeying any extracted vis. Any magus within the explosion's area must make a Twilight roll. Those casting spells within a distilling bubble are casting within an Aura of 10, which makes botches dangerous, especially since any vis crystallising into the air is probably touching them. If vis crystallises into the magus, they gain a Twilight point per pawn, but this can be prevented with a ReVi effect of level 30. The problem here is that the Parma flickers out briefly at the beginning and end of each day, and so is ineffective. The larger a bubble, the more slowly pressure develops. Tiny bubbles reach aura 10 almost instantly Small ones reach it in 5/Aura days Individual ones reach it in 10/Aura days Room sized ones reach it in 20/aura days and so on... After that, a bubble distils vis at the rate of 1 pawn per season per size class, except tiny bubbles, which create tiny grains of vis after an hour or so. Once the bubble has reached aura 10, pressure begins to build that can be siphoned off only by phase shift or explosion. For every 5 levels in the original spell, the bubble can hold one pawn of vis instead of exploding. This includes any vis already in the area when the spell was cast, such as that carried by a magus or within a magical creature. Once the bubble explodes, it fills an area one Target class larger than it was with magical energy, and all magi need to make a CrVi resistance equal to the bubble's level or make a Twilight roll. The intensity of the Twilight is modified upward by one per Target class that the bubble had above individual. A magus within a bubble when it explodes adds (3 + 1 per pawn of vis within the bubble) to the Twilight's intensity. Those sagas in which magi contain vis should ignore that vis for the purpose of these spells. The most aggressive use of this technique, so far only developed by a single Hidden Light magus, seeds the body of an enemy with thousands of tiny bubbles, which distil vis directly into their tissues. This causes irreversible Twilight tainting, without the character actually entering Twilight. The impermeable bubble prevent magic flowing either into or from the bubble. This has the magic rationing effect mentioned in the exclusive bubble and lacks the distilling effect of the inclusive bubble. It is most often used as a prison, or as an emergency quarantining technique during dramatic lab failures. The general spell Bubble of Mystic Force allows a character to cast any one of the three bubbles, but its bubbles are more fragile (effectively the bubble is 15 levels weaker than the spell). Future Membranes: "Seeking Hermetic Cold", such as the Hidden Light are for, is really just another way of saying "finding ways to Rego Vim into Vis". Experimentation is well-progressed in this field, and soon many of the spells above will be speeded up using Rego requisites. Exclusive bubbles which begin as tiny balls of energy and expand, pushing all vim before them, are already under development, and this will allow the instant creation of magically-depleted areas. Exclusive spheres which alter size, to increase their internal pressure, have been considered, but they're very dangerous, so they've not been designed. One day a young magus is going to work out that spheres which squeeze themselves until they pop have wonderful combat potential. All of the spells above have been created in alternative forms, with Creo Terram requisites, to prevent people just stepping out of them. Other spells: CrAn(Re)35: Gathering the Soldiers of the Sea: (N/S/I) This spell creates a swarm of tiny crabs. They can be used for many purposes, but are often viscously homicidal. CrAn40: Conjuration of the Aquatic Steed (T/S/I) This spell creates a sea horse. The sea horse is a halfling, horse to the fore and fish to the back. As a domestic species, no Rego requisite is necessary to use this spell. CrAn(Re)40: Swarm of the Faerie Lights of the Sea (N/S/I) Creates a school of squid. These creatures have photoluminescent patches, and can be used as light sources, and have sepia ducts. Their main role is to sow confusion, either during the night or day, by whizzing around sparkling or coating things in ink. CrAn(Re)50: Summoning the Monster of the Depths (T/S/I) This spell creates a kraken. Interestingly they aren't mentioned in literature until the 14th century, but, well, how can you have an undersea game without one? MuAn(Co)25: The Man Remade This spell is used to correct birth defects in the children of the covenant, or to make grogs human when required. MuAn(Re)40: Battle Cats This spell turns all of the cats in the covenant into amphibious balls of fluffy terror. It's used when the merrow are being particularly annoying. It gives the cats the ability to see in the darkness of the ocean, swim, and breathe underwater. ReAn35: Fish pen (N/S-P/C) This spell captures all of the fish which cross the circle, preventing them from leaving. It's used in aquaculture, or for fishing. InAq35: Ignoring the Fact that We Are Underwater (N/S/G) Prevents submersion affecting the senses of characters in the group. MuAq15: Ascending Death (F/D/I) Coats a target in a thin layer of ice. This makes them positively buoyant, which causes uncontrolled ascent. This can be fatal. MuAq30: Lungs of the Lizard (S/S/G) Turns the water entering a target's lungs into air. Useful for the grogs, and even more useful against the merrow. PeAq25: Crushing the Discomfited Merrow Destroys a broad, flat band of water about a group. This causes them to fall, then the water still above them smashes downward to fill the hole. If they're now on rock, this causes +15 damage. If they're in water it causes +5 damage and rattles them about. ReAq35: Curse of the Floating Wood (N/S/G) This spell causes uncontrolled ascent in a group, then sticks them to the surface, making survivors easy to pick off from below. CrAu5 Curtain of Bubbling Air (N/S/C) Creates a thin curtain of foaming effervescence. This is useful for caging sea animals. CrAu(Re)6: Sheath of Pure Air: (P/S/I) Creates a bubble of continually-fresh air that surrounds the caster. CrAu(Re)5: Dome of Air (N/S/G) / 15 (N/R/C) / +1 magnitude to include "Chamber of Spring Breezes" so that the air is permanently fresh. Creates a hemispherical bubble, held in place by the Rego spell. Is particularly useful against small, water-breathing predators, or as an "emergency"" spell. MuCo15: To Neither Fall Nor Rise (T/S/I) +5 to extend to Group. This spell makes a human neutrally-buoyant. CrTe40: Net of Wire (S/S/G) A heavy net falls about a group, dragging them to the watery depths. MuTe40: Deprivation of the Equipment of the Elevated Merrow (S/S/G) This spell turns all of the metal equipment the target bears into pumice, a type of rock that floats. This causes buoyancy problems and makes weapons unusable.